NOVEMBER 3 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

NOVEMBER 3

1806

Greater Poland Uprising:  General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski and Józef Rufin Wybicki entered Poznan on November 3, 1806 leading the first units of the French army.  Upon their arrival, they were met with joyous fanfare and large patriotic celebration.  On the same day Dąbrowski rallied the Poles to stand with arms on Napoleon's side and fight against Prussian occupation. Dąbrowski and Wybicki created Voivodship Commissions, whose tasks were to take administrative control and maintain peace and order in the area.  The Greater Poland Uprising was a military insurrection by Poles against the occupying Prussian forces after the Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1772–1795).  It was one of the most successful Uprisings in Polish history.  General Dabrowski is commemorated as Poland's hero, and is venerated in the Polish National Anthem.  It was Wybicki who penned the lyrics to the anthem, Mazurek Dąbrowskiego.

1943

Aktion Erntefest (Operation Harvest Festival)  occurred on November 3 and 4, 1943 in which mass shooting rampages took place at Majdanek concentration camp and its sub-camps. It was carried out by the Nazi German SS and the Ukrainian Sonderdienst, to liquidate the remaining Polish Jews. Approximately 43,000 Jews were killed on the orders of Christian Wirth and Jakob Sporrenberg, eliminating virtually the entire Jewish working force.  Operation Harvest Festival was the single largest German massacre of Jews in the entire war. It surpassed the notorious massacre of more than 33,000 Jews at Babi Yar outside Kiev by 10,000 victims. It was exceeded only by the 1941 Odessa massacre of more than 50,000 Jews in October 1941, committed by Romanian troops.


On November 3, 1943, the USAAF Eighth Air Force, consisting of a total of 539 aircraft launched a devastating raid on the Wilhelmshaven harbor. Strategic Operations ordered 539 of 566 B-17's and B-24's to the Wilhemshaven port, which hit the target at 1307-1335 hours. They claimed 21-3-24 Luftwaffe aircraft; 7 B-17's were lost, 2 damaged beyond repair, and 47 damaged; casualties were 12 WIA and 70 MIA. The mission included 11 Pathfinders, 9 using new H2X blind-bombing device (first time on a US mission) and 2 using H2S. This was the first Eighth Air Force blind-bombing mission in which the aiming point was completely destroyed and was also the Eighth's first 500-plane mission. 333 P-47's and 45 P-38's escorted the bombers with the P-38's escorting the heavy bombers almost the entire trip and saw their first real ETO combat, claiming 3-5-5 Luftwaffe aircraft. 

AUGUST 29 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

AUGUST 29

1755

Jan Henryk Dąbrowski (dob) was a Polish general, widely respected after his death for his patriotic fervor, and praised as a national hero.  He served in the Saxon Army and joined the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Army in 1792, shortly before the Second Partition of Poland. He was promoted to the rank of general in the Kościuszko Uprising of 1794. After the final Third Partition of Poland, which ended the existence of Poland as independent country, he became actively involved in promoting the cause of Polish independence abroad. He was the founder of the Polish Legions in Italy serving under Napoleon since 1797. And as a general in Italian and French service he contributed to the brief restoration of the Polish state during the Greater Poland Uprising of 1806. He participated in Napoleonic Wars, taking part in the Polish-Austrian war and the French invasion of Russia until 1813.

1939

Prompted by the British, Germany issued one last diplomatic offer to Poland, with Fall Weiss yet to be rescheduled. The German government replied that it sought the restoration of Danzig but also demanded the Polish Corridor (which had not previously been part of Hitler’s demands). Hitler claimed that these demands were intended to safeguard the German minority in Poland.  However, Hitler gave an ultimatum that he was willing to begin negotiations on the condition that a Polish representative, with signatory powers, would arrive in Berlin the next day.


Peking Plan began.  At precisely 14:15 hours,  Polish destroyers began to sail for British ports, under the command of Komandor porucznik Roman Stankiewicz. The Polish destroyers Błyskawica was commanded by Komandor porucznik Włodzimierz Kodrębski, the Burza by Komandor podporucznik Stanisław Nahorski and the Grom by Komandor porucznik Włodzimierz Hulewicz.  The evacuation had to be conducted in great haste in order to safeguard the Destroyer division of the Polish Navy.  The fleet of the German Kriegsmarine possessed a significant numerical advantage over that of the Polish Navy, and in the event of war, if the Polish vessels remained in the small, landlocked Baltic, they would have been sunk by German attacks.  On August 30, the Germans recalled the tactical unit of three of its cruisers, the Nurnberg, Koln, and Leipzig, from the Baltic Sea,  that were assigned to attack the Polish vessels.  The Polish Destroyers served alongside the Royal Navy for the remainder of the war. ORP Burza and ORP Błyskawica survived the war but ORP Grom was sunk on May 4, 1940 during the Norwegian Campaign, in the Narvik area by a Heinkel He 111 bomber.


Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jozef Beck ordered mobilization, but under the pressure from Great Britain and France, the mobilization was cancelled. When the mobilization finally started, it added to the confusion.